This chapter is an examination of the personal side of language maintenance and language shift in the United States, as told by Asian‐Americans from immigrant families. Pertinent selections were ...
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This chapter is an examination of the personal side of language maintenance and language shift in the United States, as told by Asian‐Americans from immigrant families. Pertinent selections were taken for over 250 “language autobiographies” submitted over several years in a course at the University of California at Berkeley. In these autobiographies, the students reveal their struggles with learning English and the concomitant decline of their heritage tongue. They describe from a personal point of view the processes of language attrition and the embarrassments, intergenerational isolation and ultimate regrets coming from their own illiteracy, incomplete learning and attrition of their family's native language. The conclusion points out the waste of heritage languages which, if supported better in the school system, could be important resources for the United States.Less

Trading Tongues : Loss of Heritage Languages in the United States

Leanne Hinton

Published in print: 2009-01-01

This chapter is an examination of the personal side of language maintenance and language shift in the United States, as told by Asian‐Americans from immigrant families. Pertinent selections were taken for over 250 “language autobiographies” submitted over several years in a course at the University of California at Berkeley. In these autobiographies, the students reveal their struggles with learning English and the concomitant decline of their heritage tongue. They describe from a personal point of view the processes of language attrition and the embarrassments, intergenerational isolation and ultimate regrets coming from their own illiteracy, incomplete learning and attrition of their family's native language. The conclusion points out the waste of heritage languages which, if supported better in the school system, could be important resources for the United States.

Research in code-switching, undertaken against the backdrop of very negative attitudes towards the concurrent use of two or more languages within the same conversation, has traditionally been geared ...
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Research in code-switching, undertaken against the backdrop of very negative attitudes towards the concurrent use of two or more languages within the same conversation, has traditionally been geared towards rehabilitating this form of language use. From being seen as a random phenomenon reflecting the user’s lack of competence, code-switching is currently seen as sign of an advanced level of competence in the languages involved and as serving different interactional functions. However, as a result of its success, the research tradition now faces an entirely new challenge: Where to from here? How can research in code-switching continue to be relevant and interesting now it has largely achieved its original purpose?
This books seeks to answer this programmatic question. The author argues that, in order to overcome this challenge, the notion of bilingualism (multilingualism) itself must be redefined. Bilingualism must be seen as consisting of multiple interactional practices. Accordingly, research in bilingualism and in code-switching in particular must aim to describe each of those practices in its own right. In other word, the aim should be an empirically based understanding of the various interactional practices involving the use of two or more languages. In the book, this new research direction is illustrated by means of three case studies: language choice and speech representation in bilingual interaction, language choice and conversational repair in bilingual interaction and language choice and appositive structures in written texts in Rwanda.Less

Bilingualism as Interactional Practices

Joseph Gafaranga

Published in print: 2016-12-01

Research in code-switching, undertaken against the backdrop of very negative attitudes towards the concurrent use of two or more languages within the same conversation, has traditionally been geared towards rehabilitating this form of language use. From being seen as a random phenomenon reflecting the user’s lack of competence, code-switching is currently seen as sign of an advanced level of competence in the languages involved and as serving different interactional functions. However, as a result of its success, the research tradition now faces an entirely new challenge: Where to from here? How can research in code-switching continue to be relevant and interesting now it has largely achieved its original purpose?
This books seeks to answer this programmatic question. The author argues that, in order to overcome this challenge, the notion of bilingualism (multilingualism) itself must be redefined. Bilingualism must be seen as consisting of multiple interactional practices. Accordingly, research in bilingualism and in code-switching in particular must aim to describe each of those practices in its own right. In other word, the aim should be an empirically based understanding of the various interactional practices involving the use of two or more languages. In the book, this new research direction is illustrated by means of three case studies: language choice and speech representation in bilingual interaction, language choice and conversational repair in bilingual interaction and language choice and appositive structures in written texts in Rwanda.

Assia Djebar's contribution to the assessment of Algeria as a multilingual space. Djebar's "writing for the trace" inscribes a dual resistance to colonial appropriations, but also to claims of ...
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Assia Djebar's contribution to the assessment of Algeria as a multilingual space. Djebar's "writing for the trace" inscribes a dual resistance to colonial appropriations, but also to claims of authentic self-recovery after independence. Focusing on scenes of vanishing inscriptions or writing under erasure, Djebar presents an Algerian site that is produced poetically or in fragments.Less

Vanishing Inscriptions : Assia Djebar’s Poetics of the Trace

Brigitte Weltman-Aron

Published in print: 2015-09-08

Assia Djebar's contribution to the assessment of Algeria as a multilingual space. Djebar's "writing for the trace" inscribes a dual resistance to colonial appropriations, but also to claims of authentic self-recovery after independence. Focusing on scenes of vanishing inscriptions or writing under erasure, Djebar presents an Algerian site that is produced poetically or in fragments.

Codeswitching is the alternate use of two or more languages among bilingual interlocutors. It is distinct from borrowing, which involves the phonological and morphological integration of a word from ...
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Codeswitching is the alternate use of two or more languages among bilingual interlocutors. It is distinct from borrowing, which involves the phonological and morphological integration of a word from one language into another. Codeswitching entails the mixing of phonologically distinctive elements into a single utterance: Mi hermano bought some ice cream. This volume examines the grammatical properties of languages mixed in this way, focusing on cases of language mixing within a sentence. It considers the grammar of codeswitching from a variety of perspectives, offering a collection of theoretically significant work by the leading researchers in the field. Each contribution investigates a particular grammatical phenomenon as it relates to bilingual codeswitching data, mostly from a Minimalist perspective. Data analyzed include codeswitching in Spanish-English, Korean-English, German-Spanish, Hindi-English, and Amerindian languages. Contributors are Shoba Bandi-Rao, Rakesh M. Bhatt, Sonia Colina, Marcel den Dikken, Anna Maria Di Sciullo, Daniel L. Finer, Kay E. González-Vilbazo, Sílvia Milian Hita, Jeff MacSwan, Pieter Muysken, Monica Moro Quintanilla, Erin O’Rourke, Ana Teresa Pérez-Leroux, Edward P. Stabler Jr., Gretchen Sunderman, and Almeida Jacqueline Toribio.Less

Grammatical Theory and Bilingual Codeswitching

Published in print: 2014-12-31

Codeswitching is the alternate use of two or more languages among bilingual interlocutors. It is distinct from borrowing, which involves the phonological and morphological integration of a word from one language into another. Codeswitching entails the mixing of phonologically distinctive elements into a single utterance: Mi hermano bought some ice cream. This volume examines the grammatical properties of languages mixed in this way, focusing on cases of language mixing within a sentence. It considers the grammar of codeswitching from a variety of perspectives, offering a collection of theoretically significant work by the leading researchers in the field. Each contribution investigates a particular grammatical phenomenon as it relates to bilingual codeswitching data, mostly from a Minimalist perspective. Data analyzed include codeswitching in Spanish-English, Korean-English, German-Spanish, Hindi-English, and Amerindian languages. Contributors are Shoba Bandi-Rao, Rakesh M. Bhatt, Sonia Colina, Marcel den Dikken, Anna Maria Di Sciullo, Daniel L. Finer, Kay E. González-Vilbazo, Sílvia Milian Hita, Jeff MacSwan, Pieter Muysken, Monica Moro Quintanilla, Erin O’Rourke, Ana Teresa Pérez-Leroux, Edward P. Stabler Jr., Gretchen Sunderman, and Almeida Jacqueline Toribio.

In this chapter, MacSwan provides an overview of the history of research on codeswitching (CS), distinguishing constraint-based (CB) approaches, which posit explicit rules governing language mixing, ...
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In this chapter, MacSwan provides an overview of the history of research on codeswitching (CS), distinguishing constraint-based (CB) approaches, which posit explicit rules governing language mixing, from constraint-free (CF) approaches, which seek to derive the facts of language mixing from independently motivated properties of grammar and permit no CS-specific constraints. The chapter documents that CB approaches have generally acknowledged the preference for CF approaches, but have come short of implementation; these studies have (1) explicitly confronted the limitations of the formal mechanism, and reluctantly but explicitly introduce CS-specific devices; (2) left the analytic framework inexplicit or inadequately developed so that the issue did not arise; or (3) proposed explicit CS-specific mechanisms, and argued that they are vacuously available to monolinguals too. MacSwan argues that early lexical insertion in the Minimalist Program resolves technological limitations associated with prior models which prevented implementation of a CF solution to CS. Illustrations, offered as proof of concept for the utility of the CF approach, are presented.Less

Jeff MacSwan

Published in print: 2014-12-31

In this chapter, MacSwan provides an overview of the history of research on codeswitching (CS), distinguishing constraint-based (CB) approaches, which posit explicit rules governing language mixing, from constraint-free (CF) approaches, which seek to derive the facts of language mixing from independently motivated properties of grammar and permit no CS-specific constraints. The chapter documents that CB approaches have generally acknowledged the preference for CF approaches, but have come short of implementation; these studies have (1) explicitly confronted the limitations of the formal mechanism, and reluctantly but explicitly introduce CS-specific devices; (2) left the analytic framework inexplicit or inadequately developed so that the issue did not arise; or (3) proposed explicit CS-specific mechanisms, and argued that they are vacuously available to monolinguals too. MacSwan argues that early lexical insertion in the Minimalist Program resolves technological limitations associated with prior models which prevented implementation of a CF solution to CS. Illustrations, offered as proof of concept for the utility of the CF approach, are presented.

Following Minimalist and Lexical Semantics assumptions, this chapter will analyze the role played by uninterpreted aspectual or Aktionsart features (or internal temporal organization properties of ...
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Following Minimalist and Lexical Semantics assumptions, this chapter will analyze the role played by uninterpreted aspectual or Aktionsart features (or internal temporal organization properties of events) in constraining intrasentential Spanish/English codeswitching involving the verb and its arguments. The data analyzed comes from three different Spanish/English bilingual communities (Mexican-American, Puerto Rican and Gibraltarian). The goal of this chapter is to show that constraints on Spanish/English codeswitching are based on the grammars of these two languages. The work follows from recent proposals within the Minimalist framework regarding codeswitching grammar (MacSwan, 2000, 2013).Less

Codeswitching and the Syntax-Semantics Interface: The Role of Aspectual Features in Constraining Intrasentential Codeswitching Involving the Verb

Sílvia Milian Hita

Published in print: 2014-12-31

Following Minimalist and Lexical Semantics assumptions, this chapter will analyze the role played by uninterpreted aspectual or Aktionsart features (or internal temporal organization properties of events) in constraining intrasentential Spanish/English codeswitching involving the verb and its arguments. The data analyzed comes from three different Spanish/English bilingual communities (Mexican-American, Puerto Rican and Gibraltarian). The goal of this chapter is to show that constraints on Spanish/English codeswitching are based on the grammars of these two languages. The work follows from recent proposals within the Minimalist framework regarding codeswitching grammar (MacSwan, 2000, 2013).

Eileen Chang's habit of rewriting and translating her own writings back and forth between English and Chinese presents an occasion to examine the author's bilingual and bicultural journey from the ...
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Eileen Chang's habit of rewriting and translating her own writings back and forth between English and Chinese presents an occasion to examine the author's bilingual and bicultural journey from the perspective of the performance of the self. This chapter contrasts Chang's self-translation practices in the 1940s in Shanghai with those of a later period after she left China. Whereas Chang's earlier self-translation can be viewed as a form of impersonation for the purpose of producing a defamiliarized perspective on “China” and “Chineseness,” her later practices show the failure of such impersonation as the performance of the self became increasingly determined and damaged by nationalism and Cold War politics. Chang's self-translation demonstrates that her linguistic passages from one language to another were inherently connected to the continuous process of subject-formation in the context of war, migration, intercultural misrepresentations and contexts.Less

Published in print: 2012-03-24

Eileen Chang's habit of rewriting and translating her own writings back and forth between English and Chinese presents an occasion to examine the author's bilingual and bicultural journey from the perspective of the performance of the self. This chapter contrasts Chang's self-translation practices in the 1940s in Shanghai with those of a later period after she left China. Whereas Chang's earlier self-translation can be viewed as a form of impersonation for the purpose of producing a defamiliarized perspective on “China” and “Chineseness,” her later practices show the failure of such impersonation as the performance of the self became increasingly determined and damaged by nationalism and Cold War politics. Chang's self-translation demonstrates that her linguistic passages from one language to another were inherently connected to the continuous process of subject-formation in the context of war, migration, intercultural misrepresentations and contexts.

This chapter reviews the book Lingering Bilingualism: Modern Hebrew and Yiddish Literatures in Contact (2016), by Naomi Brenner. In Lingering Bilingualism, Brenner tells the story of maskilim who ...
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This chapter reviews the book Lingering Bilingualism: Modern Hebrew and Yiddish Literatures in Contact (2016), by Naomi Brenner. In Lingering Bilingualism, Brenner tells the story of maskilim who used a combination of Hebrew and Russian (or Hebrew and German) in their writings, while other Jewish writers and intellectuals wrote in the two “Jewish” languages, Yiddish and Hebrew. According to Brenner, although most writers opted to choose either Hebrew or Yiddish, “there was a third choice available to interwar writers [...] to continue writing in Hebrew and Yiddish. Despite the radical transformations of the Eastern European world in which traditional Jewish bilingualism had thrived, individual bilingualism remained a viable option for a small group of writers.” Brenner coined the term “lingering bilingualism” and uses many examples to make a good case for this phenomenon. She also explores one key event: the 1927 visit of Sholem Asch and Perets Hirshbeyn to Palestine.Less

Published in print: 2018-09-27

This chapter reviews the book Lingering Bilingualism: Modern Hebrew and Yiddish Literatures in Contact (2016), by Naomi Brenner. In Lingering Bilingualism, Brenner tells the story of maskilim who used a combination of Hebrew and Russian (or Hebrew and German) in their writings, while other Jewish writers and intellectuals wrote in the two “Jewish” languages, Yiddish and Hebrew. According to Brenner, although most writers opted to choose either Hebrew or Yiddish, “there was a third choice available to interwar writers [...] to continue writing in Hebrew and Yiddish. Despite the radical transformations of the Eastern European world in which traditional Jewish bilingualism had thrived, individual bilingualism remained a viable option for a small group of writers.” Brenner coined the term “lingering bilingualism” and uses many examples to make a good case for this phenomenon. She also explores one key event: the 1927 visit of Sholem Asch and Perets Hirshbeyn to Palestine.

This edited volume brings together essays by leading experts exploring different aspects of ethnic minority education in China: among these are the challenges associated with bilingual and trilingual ...
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This edited volume brings together essays by leading experts exploring different aspects of ethnic minority education in China: among these are the challenges associated with bilingual and trilingual education in Xinjiang and Tibet; Han Chinese reactions to preferential minority education; the role of inland boarding schools for minority students, and the mediation of religion and culture in multiethnic schools. The book covers these topics from a range of different perspectives: Uyghur, Tibetan, Korean, Mongolian, Han, and those of the West, combining empirical field studies with theoretical approaches. Previous scholarship has explored the pedagogical and policy challenges of minority education in China; this is the first volume to recast these problems in light of the Chinese Party-state’s efforts to balance ethnic diversity and cohesion through a shared sense of national belonging in the twenty-first century.Less

Minority Education in China : Balancing Unity and Diversity in an Era of Critical Pluralism

Published in print: 2013-12-01

This edited volume brings together essays by leading experts exploring different aspects of ethnic minority education in China: among these are the challenges associated with bilingual and trilingual education in Xinjiang and Tibet; Han Chinese reactions to preferential minority education; the role of inland boarding schools for minority students, and the mediation of religion and culture in multiethnic schools. The book covers these topics from a range of different perspectives: Uyghur, Tibetan, Korean, Mongolian, Han, and those of the West, combining empirical field studies with theoretical approaches. Previous scholarship has explored the pedagogical and policy challenges of minority education in China; this is the first volume to recast these problems in light of the Chinese Party-state’s efforts to balance ethnic diversity and cohesion through a shared sense of national belonging in the twenty-first century.

China is home to over one million ethnic Koreans who have long thought of themselves as part of the Chinese nation, making significant contributions to the nation’s development. Due to their high ...
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China is home to over one million ethnic Koreans who have long thought of themselves as part of the Chinese nation, making significant contributions to the nation’s development. Due to their high educational outcomes, Koreans are often viewed as a “model minority” in China, a cultural stereotype that can carry a weighty burden. Arguing in her chapter that multicultural education requires protective and discursive spaces for minority languages, Gao Fang demonstrates that for ethnic Korean teachers, at least, the pressure to succeed and live up to the model minority tag has led to a gradual hollowing out of Korean-Chinese identity. In place of the Korean language, which is increasingly devalued, commodified cultural practices like kimchi and karaoke have come to define the boundaries of Korean identity in China. Gao’s chapter also highlights the nested yet fluid hierarchy of minzu categories and identities in the PRC, with several of her Korean informants viewing themselves as innately superior to Tibetan and Uyghurs students but still inferior to the Han majority.Less

Gao Fang

Published in print: 2013-12-01

China is home to over one million ethnic Koreans who have long thought of themselves as part of the Chinese nation, making significant contributions to the nation’s development. Due to their high educational outcomes, Koreans are often viewed as a “model minority” in China, a cultural stereotype that can carry a weighty burden. Arguing in her chapter that multicultural education requires protective and discursive spaces for minority languages, Gao Fang demonstrates that for ethnic Korean teachers, at least, the pressure to succeed and live up to the model minority tag has led to a gradual hollowing out of Korean-Chinese identity. In place of the Korean language, which is increasingly devalued, commodified cultural practices like kimchi and karaoke have come to define the boundaries of Korean identity in China. Gao’s chapter also highlights the nested yet fluid hierarchy of minzu categories and identities in the PRC, with several of her Korean informants viewing themselves as innately superior to Tibetan and Uyghurs students but still inferior to the Han majority.

In this chapter, Ma Rong provides a detailed and nuanced overview of bilingual education in the Tibetan Autonomous Region (TAR). Charting the historical development of bilingualism in TAR since 1952, ...
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In this chapter, Ma Rong provides a detailed and nuanced overview of bilingual education in the Tibetan Autonomous Region (TAR). Charting the historical development of bilingualism in TAR since 1952, Ma analyzes various models for balancing Putonghua and Tibet language instruction, highlighting the differences of opinion among state officials and Tibetan families over the relative value of both languages, and the best methods for increasing enrolment, promoting high quality educational outcomes, and improving life chances. He is critical of the current trend that does not require Han students in the TAR to study the Tibetan language and culture, and stresses the importance of adapting the model of bilingual education to local conditions. In the end, however, he stresses the centrality of Putonghua for Tibet, and contends that “if a group does not learn the language of mainstream society, especially for the groups relatively less developed in industrialization due to historical reasons, it will be impossible for the members of this group to participate in national education, economy, and social development. In most cases, these groups will be marginalized in all aspects and then ethnic conflicts will be inevitable.”Less

Bilingual Education and Language Policy in Tibet

Ma Rong

Published in print: 2013-12-01

In this chapter, Ma Rong provides a detailed and nuanced overview of bilingual education in the Tibetan Autonomous Region (TAR). Charting the historical development of bilingualism in TAR since 1952, Ma analyzes various models for balancing Putonghua and Tibet language instruction, highlighting the differences of opinion among state officials and Tibetan families over the relative value of both languages, and the best methods for increasing enrolment, promoting high quality educational outcomes, and improving life chances. He is critical of the current trend that does not require Han students in the TAR to study the Tibetan language and culture, and stresses the importance of adapting the model of bilingual education to local conditions. In the end, however, he stresses the centrality of Putonghua for Tibet, and contends that “if a group does not learn the language of mainstream society, especially for the groups relatively less developed in industrialization due to historical reasons, it will be impossible for the members of this group to participate in national education, economy, and social development. In most cases, these groups will be marginalized in all aspects and then ethnic conflicts will be inevitable.”

In her Chapter, Zuliyati Simayi provides a comprehensive and sophisticated survey of bilingualism in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR). She highlights some of the important accomplishments ...
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In her Chapter, Zuliyati Simayi provides a comprehensive and sophisticated survey of bilingualism in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR). She highlights some of the important accomplishments over the last couple of decades, and some of the systemic limitations inherent in the current system. In particular, she emphasizes the way in which a minzu-based education, rather than one that takes the individual as its starting point, can undermine learning and social outcomes, echoing the debate in Western liberalism over the relationship between group and individual rights. She concludes: “…one of the essential objectives of school education should be not only the cultivation of respect for different ethnic group’s history, culture and guaranteed development, but also the cultivation of ethnic minorities into equal citizens of the state. The best way to realize this objective is to promote multicultural education that targets justice and equality at the individual level rather than a group basis.”Less

The Practice of Ethnic Policy in Education : Xinjiang’s Bilingual Education System

Zuliyati Simayi

Published in print: 2013-12-01

In her Chapter, Zuliyati Simayi provides a comprehensive and sophisticated survey of bilingualism in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR). She highlights some of the important accomplishments over the last couple of decades, and some of the systemic limitations inherent in the current system. In particular, she emphasizes the way in which a minzu-based education, rather than one that takes the individual as its starting point, can undermine learning and social outcomes, echoing the debate in Western liberalism over the relationship between group and individual rights. She concludes: “…one of the essential objectives of school education should be not only the cultivation of respect for different ethnic group’s history, culture and guaranteed development, but also the cultivation of ethnic minorities into equal citizens of the state. The best way to realize this objective is to promote multicultural education that targets justice and equality at the individual level rather than a group basis.”

In her chapter, Linda Tsung draws on her fieldwork in primary schools in southern Xinjiang, and asks the question of what happens to educational outcomes when English is introduced into a bilingual ...
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In her chapter, Linda Tsung draws on her fieldwork in primary schools in southern Xinjiang, and asks the question of what happens to educational outcomes when English is introduced into a bilingual curriculum in the XUAR. She concludes that due to poor teaching materials, inadequate teacher training, and limited resources, Uyghur students struggle to keep up with their Han peers in this sort of trilingual environment, and the end result is poor academic achievement, and increased disparity between Uyghur and Han students. This situation is further exasperated by the gap between urban and rural schools, with urban schools and students better equipped for bilingual and trilingual education, while rural Uyghur students fall further and further behind. Finally, in her opinion, the government-backed merge of schools in Xinjiang has largely failed to address these inequalities, with significant barriers remaining in place (linguistic, cultural and institutional), which prevent any meaningful interaction either inside the classroom or on the playgroundsLess

Trilingual Education and School Practice in Xinjiang

Linda Tsung

Published in print: 2013-12-01

In her chapter, Linda Tsung draws on her fieldwork in primary schools in southern Xinjiang, and asks the question of what happens to educational outcomes when English is introduced into a bilingual curriculum in the XUAR. She concludes that due to poor teaching materials, inadequate teacher training, and limited resources, Uyghur students struggle to keep up with their Han peers in this sort of trilingual environment, and the end result is poor academic achievement, and increased disparity between Uyghur and Han students. This situation is further exasperated by the gap between urban and rural schools, with urban schools and students better equipped for bilingual and trilingual education, while rural Uyghur students fall further and further behind. Finally, in her opinion, the government-backed merge of schools in Xinjiang has largely failed to address these inequalities, with significant barriers remaining in place (linguistic, cultural and institutional), which prevent any meaningful interaction either inside the classroom or on the playgrounds

In this chapter, the policy periods were first identified. Linguistic work on describing minority languages was then described in greater detail. To date, there are still twenty-four ethnic groups ...
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In this chapter, the policy periods were first identified. Linguistic work on describing minority languages was then described in greater detail. To date, there are still twenty-four ethnic groups without their own officially recognized scripts. In the light of this development work on minority language scripts, and hence the possibility or impossibility of education in minority languages, some preliminary results from a survey of sixty minority learners were analyzed. Against this general picture, seven case histories of learners from different ethnic groups - the Zhuangs, the Mans, the Yaos, the Mulaos, the Huis, the Miaos and the Dongs - were presented. They represent the educationally more successful minority learners. Their very success underscores the linguistic and cultural dilemma faced by minority learners in China which is elucidated further in this chapter. While the government wishes to protect minority languages and to provide education in minority languages as a matter of policy and ideology, resourcing issues aside, it also has the duty to offer minority learners opportunities in the mainstream national life, opportunities which are largely available mostly in Chinese as a matter of everyday reality.Less

Developing Minority Languages and Bilingualism

Agnes S. L. Lam

Published in print: 2005-10-01

In this chapter, the policy periods were first identified. Linguistic work on describing minority languages was then described in greater detail. To date, there are still twenty-four ethnic groups without their own officially recognized scripts. In the light of this development work on minority language scripts, and hence the possibility or impossibility of education in minority languages, some preliminary results from a survey of sixty minority learners were analyzed. Against this general picture, seven case histories of learners from different ethnic groups - the Zhuangs, the Mans, the Yaos, the Mulaos, the Huis, the Miaos and the Dongs - were presented. They represent the educationally more successful minority learners. Their very success underscores the linguistic and cultural dilemma faced by minority learners in China which is elucidated further in this chapter. While the government wishes to protect minority languages and to provide education in minority languages as a matter of policy and ideology, resourcing issues aside, it also has the duty to offer minority learners opportunities in the mainstream national life, opportunities which are largely available mostly in Chinese as a matter of everyday reality.

The introduction shows Roman attitudes toward translation to be unlike our own and suggests that modern assumptions about translation have limited our understanding of Roman literature generally and ...
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The introduction shows Roman attitudes toward translation to be unlike our own and suggests that modern assumptions about translation have limited our understanding of Roman literature generally and Catullus’s poetry specifically. It outlines recent developments in Roman translation studies and discusses the distinctive features of Roman translation theory and practice (e.g. concern with control rather than fidelity, disinterest in literal translation). It also contextualizes poetic translation within issues central to Roman culture more broadly, in particular hellenization, bilingualism, colonialism, and Rome’s historical relationship with Greece. It situates Catullus’s own translation of small-scale poetic genres (lyric, epigram, etc.) within the broader context of late Republican translation theory and practice, including the work of Lucretius and Cicero. It ends with a chapter by chapter outline of the book’s argument.Less

Finding Catullus in Translation

Elizabeth Marie Young

Published in print: 2015-09-01

The introduction shows Roman attitudes toward translation to be unlike our own and suggests that modern assumptions about translation have limited our understanding of Roman literature generally and Catullus’s poetry specifically. It outlines recent developments in Roman translation studies and discusses the distinctive features of Roman translation theory and practice (e.g. concern with control rather than fidelity, disinterest in literal translation). It also contextualizes poetic translation within issues central to Roman culture more broadly, in particular hellenization, bilingualism, colonialism, and Rome’s historical relationship with Greece. It situates Catullus’s own translation of small-scale poetic genres (lyric, epigram, etc.) within the broader context of late Republican translation theory and practice, including the work of Lucretius and Cicero. It ends with a chapter by chapter outline of the book’s argument.

This chapter presents an overview of the theoretical and empirical literature of bilingual education which is relevant to an understanding of how a second or foreign language (L2) can be used as a ...
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This chapter presents an overview of the theoretical and empirical literature of bilingual education which is relevant to an understanding of how a second or foreign language (L2) can be used as a medium of instruction in schools for the dual goal of achieving bilingualism/biliteracy and cognitive/academic learning. Major theories, principles, concepts and programme options/models in bilingual education are delineated. The factors and conditions promoting or inhibiting success in bilingual education are critically reviewed. Their implications for Hong Kong and other Southeast Asian contexts are discussed.Less

Bilingual Education in Different Contexts: Principles and Practice

Angel M. Y. LinEvelyn Y. F. Man

Published in print: 2009-03-01

This chapter presents an overview of the theoretical and empirical literature of bilingual education which is relevant to an understanding of how a second or foreign language (L2) can be used as a medium of instruction in schools for the dual goal of achieving bilingualism/biliteracy and cognitive/academic learning. Major theories, principles, concepts and programme options/models in bilingual education are delineated. The factors and conditions promoting or inhibiting success in bilingual education are critically reviewed. Their implications for Hong Kong and other Southeast Asian contexts are discussed.

Some bilingual societies exhibit a distribution of language skills that cannot be explained by economic theories that portray languages as pure communication devices. Such distribution of skills are ...
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Some bilingual societies exhibit a distribution of language skills that cannot be explained by economic theories that portray languages as pure communication devices. Such distribution of skills are typically the result of public policies that promote bilingualism among members of both speech communities (reciprocal bilingualism). In this paper I argue that these policies are likely to increase social welfare by diminishing economic and social segmentation between the two communities. However, these gains tend to be unequally distributed over the two communities. As a result, in a large range of circumstances these policies might not draw sufficient support. The model is built upon the communicative value of languages, but also emphasizes the role of linguistic preferences in the behavior of bilingual individuals.Less

Economic Value of Reciprocal Bilingualism

Ramon Caminal

Published in print: 2016-09-30

Some bilingual societies exhibit a distribution of language skills that cannot be explained by economic theories that portray languages as pure communication devices. Such distribution of skills are typically the result of public policies that promote bilingualism among members of both speech communities (reciprocal bilingualism). In this paper I argue that these policies are likely to increase social welfare by diminishing economic and social segmentation between the two communities. However, these gains tend to be unequally distributed over the two communities. As a result, in a large range of circumstances these policies might not draw sufficient support. The model is built upon the communicative value of languages, but also emphasizes the role of linguistic preferences in the behavior of bilingual individuals.

This chapter investigates the economic returns to bilingualism. The analysis is staged in Kazakhstan, a multi-ethnic country with complex ethnic settlement patterns that has recently switched its ...
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This chapter investigates the economic returns to bilingualism. The analysis is staged in Kazakhstan, a multi-ethnic country with complex ethnic settlement patterns that has recently switched its official state language from Russian to Kazakh. We find a surprising negative effect of bilingualism on earnings and generally low returns to speaking Kazakh. We believe that individuals assess their proficiency in a language relatively to their peers. Hence, bilinguals who rate themselves as “fluent” in Russian and whose peers are Russian speakers are more likely to be genuinely fluent in Russian. In contrast bilinguals who rate themselves as “fluent” in Russian but whose peers are Kazakh speakers are less likely to be genuinely fluent in Russian but rather more fluent than their Kazakh-speaking peers. Thus, the wage penalty for bilingualism is in fact the wage penalty for being less fluent in Russian language which is valued in the labor market in Kazakhstan.Less

Bilingualism and Economic Performance

Alisher AldashevAlexander M. Danzer

Published in print: 2016-09-30

This chapter investigates the economic returns to bilingualism. The analysis is staged in Kazakhstan, a multi-ethnic country with complex ethnic settlement patterns that has recently switched its official state language from Russian to Kazakh. We find a surprising negative effect of bilingualism on earnings and generally low returns to speaking Kazakh. We believe that individuals assess their proficiency in a language relatively to their peers. Hence, bilinguals who rate themselves as “fluent” in Russian and whose peers are Russian speakers are more likely to be genuinely fluent in Russian. In contrast bilinguals who rate themselves as “fluent” in Russian but whose peers are Kazakh speakers are less likely to be genuinely fluent in Russian but rather more fluent than their Kazakh-speaking peers. Thus, the wage penalty for bilingualism is in fact the wage penalty for being less fluent in Russian language which is valued in the labor market in Kazakhstan.

A development in recent Somerville and Ross scholarship has highlighted their vivid and painstaking representations of dialect and Hiberno-English usage. This feature of their work has to date been ...
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A development in recent Somerville and Ross scholarship has highlighted their vivid and painstaking representations of dialect and Hiberno-English usage. This feature of their work has to date been discussed in relation to individual texts (most frequently The Real Charlotte) while the significance of language usage, language shift and socio-linguistic change as dynamic themes across their work remains to be fully explored. This chapter resituates such narrative representations in the context of the wider language and cultural revival movements. It argues that such a re-examination of Somerville and Ross’s work not only brings to light significant patterns of interrelation between the writers and the broader movement(s), but also exposes the limitations of a language ‘cause’ understood only through the paradigm of language loss and revival.Less

‘An Irish problem’: bilingual manoeuvres in the work of Somerville and Ross

Margaret Kelleher

Published in print: 2016-08-01

A development in recent Somerville and Ross scholarship has highlighted their vivid and painstaking representations of dialect and Hiberno-English usage. This feature of their work has to date been discussed in relation to individual texts (most frequently The Real Charlotte) while the significance of language usage, language shift and socio-linguistic change as dynamic themes across their work remains to be fully explored. This chapter resituates such narrative representations in the context of the wider language and cultural revival movements. It argues that such a re-examination of Somerville and Ross’s work not only brings to light significant patterns of interrelation between the writers and the broader movement(s), but also exposes the limitations of a language ‘cause’ understood only through the paradigm of language loss and revival.